1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to storage and protection devices, and more particularly, to a safe for firearms, ammunition, documents, and other shooting sport paraphernalia with easy user-access.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, many Americans own firearms or other types of weapons for recreational use. Many firearm owners own multiple firearms and have a need for safely storing the firearms when they are not in use.
Current gun safes are typically in the form of a metal, upright, rectangular box that includes a rectangular door at the front of the box. These conventional firearm safes typically provide non-movable firearm racks attached to the interior walls of the rectangular box. In such safes, guns stored near the door may be easy to access. However, guns stored deeply inside of the safe, towards the rear wall of the box, are often difficult to retrieve. Often, retrieval of such firearms may require a user to reach deeply within the safe and/or to remove other items from the safe before he or she is able to reach deeply into the safe. This type of operation is cumbersome, and in some circumstances, may result in damage to the guns and possibly personal injury to the user. Difficulty in accessing and retrieving stored firearms may result in damage to guns from nicking or striking against each other and the interior of the safe. Thus, the structure and orientation of conventional gun safes often creates situations in which guns are poorly secured within the safe, storage potential is underutilized, and it is difficult and time consuming to store and retrieve guns or other related items.
Conventional gun safes utilize either “internal” or “external” hinges and latches located along one or more sides of the safe door. The primary disadvantage of external hinges and latches is that they are exposed, mounted on the safe exterior, which makes them vulnerable to tampering, and thus, potential targets of would-be thieves. While destruction of hinges or latches on a gun safe may or may not compromise the security of a safe, such damage is expensive to repair. However, one disadvantage of traditional internal hinges and latches is that they occupy valuable storage space, both in their static position and in the arc through which they must travel when the door is operated. Internal hinges also restrict the degree to which the safe door may be opened.
In light of the above, there is a need for a firearm storage device that allows for unimpeded access to all, or most, stored items therein without requiring removal of any items, and while also providing convenient user access and security.